Mininder Kocher

Academic and professional career Kocher began his career at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he currently serves as Chief of the Sports Medicine Division and Professor of Orthopedic Surgery. He also serves as Team Orthopedic Consultant for Babson College and is recognized internationally for his contributions to pediatric sports medicine.

Kocher has served on the Board of Directors and the Board of Specialty Societies of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), the Board of Directors of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM), and from 2021–2022 as president of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA).

Research Kocher specializes in pediatric sports medicine, fracture care, and arthroscopic surgery of the knee, shoulder, hip, elbow, and ankle. His research emphasizes clinical epidemiology, biostatistics, and pediatric orthopedic outcomes. He has conducted prospective cohort studies, decision analyses, and survivorship analyses to improve diagnosis, treatment, and injury prevention in young athletes. His notable work includes prediction models for pediatric hip conditions and ACL injuries.

Kocher treats a high volume of pediatric and adolescent patients, performing over 600 operations annually. He is particularly known for addressing injuries related to early sports specialization and high-intensity youth athletics. He manages multidisciplinary programs for pediatric athletes, including concussion, bone, female athlete, and hip preservation clinics.

Publications and Recognition Kocher has authored over 300 scientific articles, 150 book chapters, and eight textbooks. He has an h-index of 87, one of the highest in the field of orthopaedic surgery.

His research has received numerous awards, including the Kappa Delta Award, Angela Kuo Award, Arthur Heune Award, Vernon Thompson Award, and the OREF Clinical Research Award.

Kocher was first author on the 1999 publication "Differentiating Between Septic Arthritis and Transient Synovitis of the Hip in Children: An Evidence-Based Clinical Prediction Algorithm", where he introduced the Kocher criteria that are used to diagnose septic arthritis.

He has pioneered surgical techniques for the management of sports injuries in children including the Micheli-Kocher technique for ACL reconstruction in children with open growth plates and performed the first meniscus transplant in a skeletally immature child.

He has been featured in New York Times, Scientific American, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Herald, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, and Sports Illustrated.